Navigating change in uncertain times.

COVID-19 UPDATE

Your people. They’re your most important stakeholder, especially now. And their health and safety is your #1 priority. The way you treat and inspire them will have an enormous impact on workforce loyalty and corporate reputation for years to come.

After spending several months counseling clients on COVID-19’s impact on the workplace and workforce, we offer a simple framework to help you navigate through the phases of this crisis with considerations of implications along the way. In particular, we recognize that one of your top near-term challenges will be bringing employees back to work, and have developed a workforce re-entry specialty to support re-entry planning and execution.

Ultimately, we’re here to help you ensure you keep prioritizing the needs of your employees by building an inclusive, sustainable and purpose-driven business.

Find out more




Transformation. Transformed.

Transformation is an imperative for leaders today, yet over 75% of significant change efforts fail in the long run.

Why? Leaders don’t model the right behaviors, stakeholders aren’t bought in and employees don’t know what’s in it for them.

That’s why we approach transformation differently. Aligning leaders around a shared direction. Engaging stakeholders in the journey. And changing hearts and minds to power the way.

It’s the bigger impact that’s made when strategic know-how is united with creative action. Transformation transformed.

Here’s how.
​

Identify Growth & Innovation Opportunities

How will you realize your growth ambitions?

Unlocking the most significant growth opportunities starts with looking well outside of an organization to uncover emerging trends and market needs your company can address.

Growth Positioning helps leaders identify and establish a market position. This can mean redefining how people think of their brand, breaking it out of its category or inventing a new one.

Opportunity Mapping enables teams to think beyond current capabilities and products. We do this by mapping category landscapes, trends and business needs to uncover growth opportunities.

Innovation Strategy increases an organization’s ability to expand by creating strong alignment with its corporate strategy. In mapping out an organization’s innovation process, we pinpoint barriers that enable management to coordinate efforts across the organization and set the metrics that support meaningful growth.

Iconic Move makes a new growth strategy tangible for internal and external audiences. Through this bold act, we distinguish a company’s key distinguisher and value proposition.

Align, Engage & Prepare Leaders

Are leaders prepared to guide your organization on its transformation journey?

As they say, “it starts at the top.” A successful change journey is dependent on an aligned, committed and capable leadership team that champions the change through word and deed.

Leadership Transition. New leadership is often brought in as the first step in a transformation journey. We help these individuals build trust and confidence with key stakeholders during those critical First 100 Days and beyond.

Leadership Alignment Sessions. With a team of seasoned session designers and facilitators, we create consensus-building experiences for leadership teams, breaking down barriers and driving mutual understanding and commitment.

Change Management Training. Whether delivered in-person or virtually, we design a tailored change management curriculum based on theoretical truths and hard-earned practical insights.

Manager Enablement. Too often people managers are asked to cascade a change vision they don’t believe in themselves. United Minds inspires commitment at this critical layer through tailored learning and engagement experiences, and tools that empower managers to engage their teams.​

Shift Culture

Does your culture support your transformation strategy?

A strong culture that promotes shared values and ways of working helps improve business performance and acts as a north star in times of crisis. Whatever your business goal, our CultureShift offer helps ensure your culture is working for, not against, you.

Culture Assessment. Our team of organizational psychologists and ethnographers gather insights through observation, focus groups, textual analysis and much more to “diagnose” your culture type and understand the variance between the culture you have today and the one you want for the future.

Culture Transformation. Through leadership sponsorship, communications, training and aligned incentive systems, we help companies evolve their cultures to support their business goals. Our work has helped organizations become more collaborative, more innovative, more inclusive, more compliant, and much more. ​

Becoming a Purpose-Driven Organization. Today, making a difference has become as important as making a profit.  The United Minds team helps organizations define, articulate, and embed purpose into change strategies, processes, decision-making, and culture.

Build an Inclusive Workplace

Are you fully benefitting from diverse backgrounds and perspectives?

Building an environment where all people have agency to contribute leads to greater innovation and employee engagement, as well as protects companies from risk.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Cultural Assessment. Using our CultureShift offer, we assess how ingrained attitudes, beliefs and behaviors are keeping your organization from achieving its DE&I goals, and build a change management roadmap to help you evolve for the future.

Chief Diversity Officer Advisement. The first of their kind in many companies, CDOs are often starting from scratch. Our seasoned advisers help them make the business case for diversity and inclusion, secure resources, build their teams and craft a change agenda.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Communications. Many companies aren’t acknowledged for their commitment to diversity and inclusion. We work with you to develop your DE&I story through executive, employee, and CSR communications, as well as recruitment marketing.

Integrate Following a Merger or Acquisition

How will you bring two organizations together as one?

Over 80% of mergers and acquisitions fail to achieve their forecasted value. Smart communications and a robust change management program can make the difference. United Minds maintains a customized, integrated and global team of experts to support clients through company mergers and beyond.

Stakeholder Engagement. To drive broad understanding and alignment about the integration, we help clients develop a holistic stakeholder engagement plan that includes both internal and external stakeholders, including media and analysts.

M&A Change Management. Drawing on our team of former management consultants and internal communicators, we help clients assess change readiness, drive leadership alignment, equip managers and ensure continued employee productivity throughout the transaction and the transition.

M&A Cultural Assessment. Our culture diagnostic allows us to identify cultural similarities and differences between the two companies, and potential risk areas, early on. Through culture visioning workshops, we support leadership in defining the future culture of the combined organization and measuring progress towards achieving it.

Change Champion Programs. By identifying and training a network of employee influencers, we help build support for the combined organization and its vision through bottom-up advocacy.

Corporate Identity & Branding. We support clients in defining the new entity’s vision, mission, values and brand – a critical step in introducing the new organization to stakeholders and building shared identity.

Reorganize or Restructure

How will you minimize disruption and sustain engagement?

Flat organizational structures, shared services models and outsourcing are replacing traditional corporate structures. While the goal is efficiency and cost reduction, these structural changes have human implications.

Change Readiness Assessment. Through a proprietary tool, we ensure companies have the necessary alignment, governance structures, infrastructure and tracking mechanisms in place before change begins.

Change Management. We consider the impacts to individuals at each stage of the restructuring and provide the communications, training and support they need to successfully transition to the new state.

Difficult Conversations Training. Restructuring often involves team realignment, role changes and moves to different work locations. By design, our customizable curriculum empowers managers to handle the implications with confidence. ​

Strengthen Employer Reputation

Are you able to attract the talent you need to get where you’re going?

Research shows that finding and retaining the best talent is a top priority for senior leaders today. By immersing ourselves in your corporate brand strategy, desired employee experience and internal ecosystem, we help you define what makes the company a best place to work and promote it through targeted recruitment marketing.

Employer Reputation Audits. Drawing on our industry-leading analytics capabilities, we apply consumer sentiment and behavior tracking tools to understand what current and former employees are saying about you and how you show up online.

Employer Brand Development. Through extensive research with current employees, prospects and alumni, we help you develop a distinctive employer brand that is substantiated by data, HR programming and current employees. When activated through creative campaigns and omni-channel marketing, it improves job attraction and retention rates.

Employee Experience Alignment. If promises your company makes don’t match what people experience after they join, you lose credibility. This exposes you to employee turnover and risks the company’s reputation. Through a comprehensive gap analysis, we help organizations align what they say with what they do. ​

Ground Strategy in Insight & Foresight

Do you have the knowledge and expertise required to ground your strategy?

Developing a winning business or organizational strategy starts with insight and foresight. Insight comes from research and analysis that ensures that the strategy is realistic. Expert-driven foresight enables you to identify imminent challenges and opportunities. ​

Audience Journey is about putting ourselves in the shoes of customers, employees and other key audiences. What are their attitudes and beliefs, and how are those guiding behavior? Ultimately we are searching for areas in the journey where we can intervene and guide them to think and behave in our clients’ favor.

Influencer Mapping helps you identify your true influencers of today and their replacements tomorrow. Beyond traditional media analyses, this helps clients take action to improve influencer support.​

Digital Audit gives leaders the amount of information needed to make strategic decisions for transformation. It maps out the digital capabilities of the organization based on 12 fundamental metrics.​

SAMPLE RESEARCH TOOLS:

Ethnographic Research offers specific insights into what people say they do and what they actually do. This identifies hidden and sometimes unexpected issues, needs and opportunities.

Quantitative Analysis is particularly useful for a deep understanding of the views, opinions or attitudes of your audience, and to test the differences relative to other populations.​

Top